BimmerGeezer

Hi, I am newish to this forum, but have found many answers to many questions I've had in the 5 months I've owned my E61. So firstly thanks to those who contribute, its a really useful source of information/problem solving.

When I first purchased the car in June this year, I noticed that the passenger side headlight failed to move up during the self level test on start up. This I had assumed (at the time I thought reasonably) meant it was likely to be a fault with the headlight rather than any wiring, modules or switch failures since the driver side headlight works ok. This is what encouraged me to do an LCI headlight upgrade - I thought if I'm into buying a new headlight, I may as well upgrade!

I have a 2006 E61 Pre-LCI 520d with Halogen headlights, and I have just got part way through an LCI Halogen headlight retrofit. I have sourced the lights, made up adapters and fitted them to the car. I have them working except for the angel eye bulb failure errors which I was fully aware of. I have an LM2 light module, which I am fitting later this week, which will need some coding, but after that I am hoping all will be complete.

Oddly, Having fitted the LCI headlights (purchased second hand from eBay) I have the same fault with the passenger side LCI headlight as with the Pre-LCI headlight. I have removed the back of the headlight and checked the H7 bulb carrier and it doesn't move excessively, which I believe suggests its not the headlight. (I have read that sometimes the vertical aim adjustment ball and socket can become disconnected inside the headlight - the symptom for this failure is excessive movement). This leaves me unsure what the problem might be.

I am aware that there is a level sensor on the front suspension arm somewhere which controls the headlight level (via the LCM???) but surely this would control both headlights equally? It seems odd that one headlight works ok, but the other doesn't??

Incidentally, if I move the vertical aim adjuster which is located inside the car next to the headlight switch, then the passenger headlight (the defective one) moves unpredictably. I've even had a situation where it moves up and down, but out of phase with the driver side headlight - that is to say that when the driver headlight moves up, the passenger headlight moves down, and vice versa!! Occasionally it'll work as it should. Most of the time the passenger headlight ends up pointed down too far, whilst the driver headlight is fine.

Any thoughts appreciated!
Thanks in advance for your interest.
Chris.